I better adjust quickly, learn fast, and get on with the program. And I better keep my mouth in check. Oh yes, I made a conscious decision that when I got called up there that I’d do exactly as Marjory had.
Mayhem flicked his wrist. “Next,” he said. “Alina. It says here you were on house arrest. Ran away to another community, left your husband.”
“It’s true,” Alina said and stepped out of her clothes.
Mayhem didn’t even lift his eyes from the papers. He couldn’t even be enticed to look at the auction girls. Lore looked, however, and when his gaze met mine, I winked at him.
He showed me his sharp teeth and winked back.
Okay, this was good. Though he looked like he could break a mountain in half, he also looked friendly. And horny, judging by the expanding package under his kilt.
“She’s good in bed!” a man shouted, and Alina turned bright red. “Don’t want her cheatin’ ass in mine anymore. Five hundred to start.”
Well, that caught Mayhem’s attention. He snapped up his orange eyes and found the man who’d spoken behind me. “Is she your wife?” he asked.
“She was.”
“Why did she run?”
“Dunno,” the man said.
“I do.” Mayhem leapt out of the chair, took Alina by her shoulders, and twisted her around. People gasped at the purple bruises over her kidneys. Mayhem stepped to the side, around her and down the stairs. He strolled casually to the man in the back. We all watched in horror as Mayhem’s body grew, his face elongated, his teeth dropped and filled his massive jaw. He took the man’s head and bit into his cheek. He ripped his cheek right off.
Blood spouted around them, the women screamed—myself included—but Mayhem seemed bored. He strolled back to his chair, chewing on his meal.
Silence.
The music stopped. The low growls of beasts around us vibrated in the room. Their eyes hadn’t paled in excitement before, but now, as I looked around, every last one of them looked ready to devour us.
We were at the beasts’ mercy.
I turned around. Maurice shook his head, telling me to keep my shit together. I could barely stand here. I wanted to climb those curtains and hide behind them. Okay, so maybe the pretty blond boy with the pale orange eyes and a lean swimmer’s body really was a monster. Not that I didn’t know that before, but he looked so tame and angelic incapable of a horrific thing such as eating that man’s cheek. A barbarian.
Okay, then. More of Lore for me. Lore didn’t have a title, and he looked monstrous. By the law of opposites, he’d be a teddy bear. I managed to direct another smile at Lore.
“Erbiyo,” Mayhem said, “this one’s my gift to you. Lore, have someone tie her husband to the pole next to Herbert. Give the husband the five hundred lashes he asked for. Let’s see.” Mayhem opened a file. “Reagan.”
Chapter Four
Mayhem
“Reagan,” I repeated when the girl didn’t come forward. I flipped though her file. The file said she worked as a babysitter in Beast City for a wealthy human family. Since they’d traveled across the seas last month, they no longer needed her. The man named Maurice had found her penniless on the street and brought her here.
In other words, her file revealed an ordinary human woman. We didn’t get much of the ordinary, we got more of the desperate volunteers such as the first two girls up here who’d gotten thrown out of their communities. Ever since the communities got the word of Jamie’s fortress project in the Beast City, they went quiet, didn’t call with pairing offers as often as before. Most didn’t come to the auctions, thinking we’d grow desperate and deal with them anyway, pay a fortune for the girls. I wouldn’t pay a dollar. If I ever saw my mate, I’d simply take her, and if anyone stood in my way, I’d eat them. Win, win.
I felt like eating Alina’s husband for trying to sell me damaged goods. But that would’ve scared people, and we had to keep the show rolling in the hopes that Men of Earth would take the bait and bring a girl to us. I couldn’t kill anyone in my court. Yet.
Having nothing else to do, I reclined back, kicked up my foot, and licked my teeth. Mmmm, not bad. Humans tasted differently depending on their diet and hygiene. The one in my mouth fed well. Maybe I should’ve kept him for supper. “Reeeeagan,” I called out again as I continued reading her file. “It says here you are…” I paused, unsure what to say about this one’s profession. Aerialist. Wait a minute. It got better. Hobbies: juggling. None of those matched her former babysitting job, so I presumed she ended up babysitting when she couldn’t find an aerialist job. Or she didn’t want to be auctioned and had scribbled nonsense on her paperwork. Nothing we hadn’t dealt with before. A swift paddling and a nice warm meal tamed girls with attitude. She’d adjust within a week.